


Of Comas, Found Families, and the Literal Nightmare that is Season Four

by SabbyStarlight



Series: George Eads Appreciation Week 2020! [6]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: And a heaping spoonful of found family feels, And snarky, And this is the only way I can make sense of it, Asking for a friend..., Basically this is just me being entirely self indulgent, Because Season Four is a complete mess, Do not be alarmed by that Russ tag, Gen, It's not the way you think, Some slight hurt Jack, What is the difference between an AU and fanon?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:28:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22965412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SabbyStarlight/pseuds/SabbyStarlight
Summary: Day six of George Eads Appreciation Week!  Family Moment.Season Four is Jack's worst nightmare.
Series: George Eads Appreciation Week 2020! [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1645582
Comments: 30
Kudos: 44





	Of Comas, Found Families, and the Literal Nightmare that is Season Four

**Author's Note:**

> Now seems like a pretty good time to say that I am not keeping up with Season four. I watched the first episode and caught a summary of the second from some friends, and hated every second of it. Everything was such a mess. A weird, out of character, unrealistic, heart-hurting, mess and it isn’t worth putting myself through watching it. If things get turned around, I’ll catch back up, I’m still recording each episode because I can’t give up all faith just yet, but for now, and the foreseeable future, I’m ignoring canon and living in my own happy little world. And in MY world, there is only one obvious explanation for the literal nightmare that is Season four…

Jack Dalton knows his way around a bad dream.

More nights than not, some form of a nightmare plagues him. Waking him up in a cold sweat, fists swinging, short of breath, panicked. He’s come to accept them, most people who have seen what he’s seen, done what he’s done, they aren’t still alive to deal with the haunting repercussions of those actions. He’s turned them into a running joke, as he does with most things in his life he’s too uncomfortable to open up honestly about. “I had a dream where I died like this once,” He would tell Mac in the middle of whatever crazy, barely-there idea they were calling a plan and Mac would grin. “You die in all your dreams.” He would tease, and the topic would be dropped.

And while that was, admittedly, an accurate accusation, those dreams when Jack ultimately met his own demise, were never the worst. That’s why he could joke about them. The really bad ones were the ones where he lived and the people he cared about, the people he had sworn to protect, did not.

Jack always thought those were as bad as it could get, watching, helpless, as his mind came up with new ways to pull Riley or Mac out of his life for good. They were the most common subjects, though everyone had made an appearance at one time or another. He didn’t think it could get worse than that.

He was wrong.

He never should have left to lead the strike team sent to take down Tiberius Kovacs. But he felt responsible, having lived in a falsely safe world thinking he had killed the monster years ago, and the last thing he wanted was his kids, his family, anywhere near that mission, as much as it hurt him to leave them behind. He didn’t want to put them at risk, though that wasn’t the main reason he went solo. They put their lives on the line every day, doing what they do, same as him. But Jack was afraid of himself. Afraid to let them see the man he knew he would have to turn back into in order to make the job a success.

So he left everything. His family, his life, and that version of himself, the one capable of being a father figure and an overwatch, behind. Offering only a hurried, last-minute, tearful explanation and a handshake as a poor excuse for goodbyes because he knew he wouldn’t have the strength to walk away, to fall back into the dark mindset he needed, if he allowed himself the luxury of anything more.

It had been the biggest mistake of his life.

Nearly two years had passed, and the mission, technically, had been a success. Kovacs was dead. But it hadn’t come easy or without a cost. Jack’s tac team, despite being the best of the best, had been obliterated in the final standoff. Every one of his men dead or critically injured. Jack himself had landed in the latter category, but he couldn’t find himself to consider it lucky. Caught too close to the blow-back from Kovacs’ final bomb, his last-minute hail mary had landed Jack with a brain bleed. The swelling sending him into a coma, unresponsive when the first responders pulled him from the rubble, amazed that there were any survivors. That had been two months ago. And Jack had been trapped in the worst nightmare of his life ever since.

He thought having to watch his family die was as bad as it could get, but that wasn’t the case. In his mind, his twisted, warped, dream world, they were all alive, but everything was wrong.

He watched, shocked, as Phoenix disbanded. Their secret little agency had survived so much, and yet it crumbled so easily, a tower of playing cards caught in the wind, scattering them all in different directions. Alone. It seemed to take no time at all for them to forget about each other and the little family they had become.

He watched as Desi and Mac fumbled their way through an awkward attempt at a relationship. Uncomfortable and without a spark of chemistry between them. That had been the last thing he had ever imagined resulting when he had picked Desi to be Mac’s new overwatch. He had chosen her carefully, though the list of people he would trust Mac’s safety with was, admittedly, a short one. But she was strong, capable, and just as smart as Mac, though in different ways. He knew Mac would appreciate her preference of taking a threat out in non-lethal ways, but she wasn’t opposed to killing when she had to, a trait that made Jack feel better, knowing that someone other than Mac would be there to make those calls, to see those hard decisions through. She had a sharp tongue that would keep Mac on his toes, keep him thinking without getting lost in his own head as he tended to do when things got quiet. He had never pictured either of them seeing the other as something more. And if that phase of the nightmare wasn’t bad enough, he watched as it fizzled out and they fell apart. As somehow, his spunky, strong, badass Desi was downgraded to nothing more than a female love interest. A pretty prize to be won, by none other than his own best friend who, he had made sure over the years, knew that a woman was worth so much more.

He watched as Bozer rediscovered his dream. That one wasn’t so hard to see, while he had been relieved they didn’t have to keep hiding their lives from him, Jack had always felt a little guilty that Mac’s best friend had gotten roped into the life of a secret agent. He had seemed happier then, when his only worries were about his silly movies and whose turn it was to go grocery shopping. Jack would have been thrilled to see him finally reach success, to take the money and super-spy experience he had earned working at Phoenix and funnel it into an unexpected blockbuster. If only he hadn’t done so at the cost of his longest friendship. He had just walked away, leaving Mac to figure life out on his own. At least when Jack left him he still had a job. A purpose. Mac had never been without rules and structure. He had gone from a kid in school to a kid in college, then the Army, then the life of a clandestine agent. And now he had been cut free, to do whatever he wanted, without Jack there to tether him to reality, and Bozer had up and left too.

He watched as Riley moved on from her heartbreak over Billy, turning to the arms of another man. One he trusted even less than the Colton boy (who he was still having a difficult time believing would have cheated on a woman he was clearly crazy about). And then in another turn he never saw coming, she began to lie about him, keeping secrets. He screamed until his throat burned, begging her not to trust him. Reminding her that she didn't need a man to be happy. That she was so much more than that. But she couldn't hear him. Which was fitting, really. Since he had given up his right to lecture her about boys, about anything, by walking out of her life twice now.

He watched as the light slowly went out behind Mac's pretty blue eyes. That one was the worst. The kid had been through so much in his short life, but this, losing his family, was what was finally able to extinguish that bright, brilliant, kind soul. The broken, angry, shell of a man left behind was a complete stranger to Jack, even though he had watched, helpless, as he was formed. Doing his part in keeping the distance between him and his friends by not returning calls, opting out of dinner invites. He took a job teaching just to pass the time and Jack had hoped it would help. But he still came home alone every night to a dark house and downed more than his fair share of the six-packs that lined the fridge shelves since Bozer had moved out, usually passing out on the couch. His phone alarm would wake him up in just enough time to shower and change, slipping a jacket that had once belonged to Jack over his shoulders before doing it all again.

He watched as Matty scrambled to find a purpose in a world where the odds were stacked against her. A natural-born leader, not just unable, but unallowed to have any followers.

He watched as James’ illness progressed.

He watched as Leanna was erased entirely, working on a deep-cover op when Phoenix disbanded, leaving her vulnerable and on her own. A young, promising agent’s career cut short, forced to live the rest of her life under a false identity, always looking over her shoulder, waiting for the other shoe to drop, for her old life to catch up to her. Spending sleepless nights wondering when the people she thought were her friends would notice something was wrong, that she needed help. Hoping maybe daybreak would bring them with it, but it never did. Jack watched, helpless, as they forgot her.

Maybe that's why it didn't hurt as much as he thought it would when it became clear they had all forgotten him too. He had chosen to leave them, to walk away. Had given his place in their lives up willingly. He just never expected to be trapped in his own mind watching them move on, watching them grow up and grow apart, without him. No matter how hard he tried, who he begged pleaded and prayed to, he couldn't project himself into the nightmares. He was simply gone, nonexistent in their lives, past or present. Even in situations when they should have been unable to think of anyone but him, like when Mac and Riley went out for pizza and skeeball. It was if he had never been there at all.

So Jacke came up with a plan. It wasn't like he had anything better to do with his time, after all, so he created a character. Gave him a British accent, because Mac always said Jack could never pull one off and made him suave and charming with money to blow. Enough money, in fact, that he bought Phoenix and got the band back together. With his hair slicked back and fancy suits, he gave him a face he swore he had seen somewhere before but couldn’t place. He decided, for some reason, to name him Russ. And Russ, for all intents and purposes, was Jack. He had Jack's same tactile mannerisms, always laying a hand on Mac's shoulder or leaning in too close to Riley, checking out a bruise on Desi's cheek. And he spoke as much like Jack as he could with their different dialects, a joke about an invisibility cloak here, a long-winded story to bring Mac out of his head there. He even made sure Russ knew how to fly a damn chopper.

Jack thought for sure they would notice, that it would be enough to break the spell and snap himself out of his nightmare, but it didn't work. They kept right on living their not-real, unhappy lives. And Jack could do nothing but play along.

_**~M~** _

"We brought breakfast!" Bozer called as he shouldered open the hospital door shaking bags from the bakery down the street, holding it open for Leanna who entered with travel carriers of coffee cups.

"Where's Des?" Mac asked, taking the cup Leanna offered him.

"Where she is every morning," Leanna smiled. "Making her security rounds."

"European coffee is so strong,," Riley grimaced after taking a sip from the cup as it was handed to her. "Good thing I'm too tired to care."

"I told you, you didn't have to stay," Mac smiled, a worn, forced, shadow of his usual grin as he took a drink of his own and silently agreed that wasn't his favorite either. "We were fine here on our own."

"Nope," Bozer grabbed one of the extra chairs they had collected and stored in the corner of the small private room and dropped into it, digging into the pastry bag. "We decided from the minute we got here. We're not gonna complain about you making camp here in his room, but you are not goin' through it alone."

"Not alone," Mac muttered, reaching out to twist a loose string on the corner of Jack's hospital-issued blanket tightly around his finger.

"That's not what he meant," Leanna paused on her way over to perch on the arm of Bozer's chair to tear the string free, stopping Mac from cutting off the circulation to the end of his finger. "He's still here. We know. But not in the way you, or any of us, want him to be. So one of us is sticking around here with you."

"He's our family too," Riley reached out and rubbed comfortingly at his knee. "You don't get him all to yourself."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry," Mac dropped his head back against his chair. "It's hard enough seeing him like this. And then you add in the fact that he'd been gone for almost two years before? I've done this a million times, sat here watching him hurt in a million rooms just like this but not for this long. Never this long. Don't think I'm very good at the long game."

"Sit around and wait has never been your style," Bozer agreed through a mouthful of croissant. "But he's our family too, man. We wanna help."

"Speaking of the rest of our family," Desi’s voice joined the group as she walked in. Riley drained the last of her coffee before using Desi’s appearance as a distraction and helping herself to a drink of Mac's. "When did you say Matty's plane would be landing?"

"Thirteen hundred, our time tomorrow," Mac snatched the paper mug back from Riley before she could finish drinking it all. Unappealing as it was, he was going to need the caffeine to stay awake until Jack's doctor made his rounds for the day.

“I’ll go pick her up from the airport,” Desi grabbed the final coffee cup and retreated to her usual seat at the windowsill. “Unless you just want to get outta here for a while, Mac?”

“Nah,” He shook his head, protesting, just like they all knew he would. “I don’t want to leave him.”

"I can't believe he's been out here, in a freakin' coma, for two weeks and she is just now getting around to flying out." Bozer shook his head. "Thought they were closer than that?"

"She has a top-secret government agency to run, Boze. It's not like she can just drop everything to come sit vigil at the bedside of one agent. Especially with my dad out for the count now."

"And it isn't like he's alone," Riley wrapped both her hands around one of Jack's, pulling it up to press a kiss to his knuckles. "He's got us."

The day continued with the routine that had become their new normal. Eating breakfast from whichever bakery was next on Bozer's list of ones to try, while Mac and whoever else had spent the night in Jack's room tried not to fall asleep. Eventually, a nurse would come and kick them out for a while, that day it was to run imaging to check brain activity. Bland food from the cafeteria was picked at and called lunch because none of them wanted to leave the building and miss any news before they shuffled back up to the waiting room to sit and worry until they were allowed back in to be with Jack.

"Dr. Stover will be in shortly to discuss his results," a nurse with a kind smile assured as she closed the door softly behind her.

Dr. Stover had been Jack's primary specialist since he had been admitted to the hospital Matty had cleared for his care. He was supposed to be the best in his field and he certainly looked the part. Tall, with perfectly slicked-back hair, a winning smile, and a soft lilting accent. Mac liked the guy, he did, as much as he liked any doctor, and there was no denying he knew his stuff. He just wished, every time they spoke, that he had better news to offer.

"Still no change, I'm afraid."

"That's… that's not bad though, right?" Bozer's confused voice broke the tense silence, eyes flicking back and forth between the doctor, Riley, and Mac. "One of those no news is good news type things?"

"Not exactly, Boze," Mac pushed up out of his chair, pacing the length of the small room, running his hands through his hair.

"I hate to make generalized statements," Dr. Stover explained, "But usually, with cases like Mr. Dalton's here, if there has been no change, be that positive or negative, in two weeks we need to begin considering the likelihood that there might not be any changes coming."

"Don't say that," Mac's voice had an edge to it that nobody in that room had ever heard before. "You don't know that. Not for sure. You don't know how much of a fighter he is. We're not giving up on him, neither are you."

"I never said I was," Dr. Stover held out a placating hand. "Only that you need to start preparing…"

"I'm his power of attorney," Mac interrupted with a glare. "Any and all medical decisions are my responsibility and the only way you can override that is if you have me committed, say I'm mentally unable to handle that responsibility, in which case it falls to Riley." He pointed over his shoulder to Riley, who tightened her grip on Jack's hand and focused a glare of her own. "And good luck convincing her to listen to your doubts either. He's. Waking. Up."

"Alright," Dr. Stover raised both hands in surrender. "I'm not giving up on him any more than you are. I just wanted you to know the facts."

"I don't want facts," Mac said for maybe the first time in his life as he dropped, defeated, into the chair beside Bozer, his friend's hand coming up to rest on his shoulder. "I just want my partner back."

"So basically," Desi spoke up, seeing that Mac had reached his limit. "It's up to him?"

A nod and a sympathetic smile. "He's a fighter. That much is obvious. But even the strongest have their limits. If this doesn't end with him waking up, I don't want you to think of it as him giving up."

"He won't," Riley's voice was surprisingly strong, unwavering in the midst of bad news. "He won't leave us again. He's coming back to us."

"Thank you," Leanna stepped forward, offering a handshake. "For trying. But we aren't giving up just yet."

_**~M~** _

The room was dark when Matty slowly pushed the door open, thankful it didn't creak on its hinges when the moonlight coming through the thin curtains revealed her agents all together, asleep. None of them had wanted to leave after the less-than-promising news from earlier in the day and they hadn't been expecting her. An earlier flight had opened up and she jumped on the opportunity, anxious to rejoin her team and check on Jack for herself.

She carefully made her way through the maze of sleeping kids, mindful of the fact that none of them were, in fact, actual children, but they looked like it. Leanna had her head tucked into Bozer's chest and Desi was turned away from them all, facing the door, ready to be the first to jump into action at any threat. Riley had her feet propped up on Mac's lap, the two of them in uncomfortable-looking chairs pulled as close to Jack's bed as they could go. Matty smiled, silently sneaking over to the other side of the bed.

Her years of experience as a highly trained operative, the best of the best, were the only thing that kept her from screaming in surprise as two warm brown eyes blinking sleepily up at her from the bed startled her. “Jack! What the hell? All these kids here and not one of them could bother calling to let me know you were awake?”

“Naw,” Jack smiled a lazy grin, eyes roaming the dimly-lit room, passing from one of his kids on to the next. “They don’t know. Not sure I believe it myself yet.”

“What do you mean they don’t know?” Matty kept her voice pitched low, barely a whisper, but it was still telling just how exhausted the agents around her were when the conversation didn’t wake them. “You’ve just been laying here staring at them? We’ve waited two weeks for you to wake up, Jack, and you’re just letting them sleep through it?”

“They look like they need the rest,” Jack shrugged. “‘Sides, I’m not too sure this is all real anyway. Wanna enjoy it while it lasts.”

“Enjoy what? Staring at your kids while they sleep like some kind of creep?”

Jack didn’t laugh at her joke, didn’t even crack a smile, unable to fall back into their typical banter just yet. “You all bein’ here. Together. A family again.”

“Of course we’re all here,” Matty frowned, laying a concerned hand on Jack’s arm. “You’re hurt, where else would we be?”

She watched as his expressive eyes darkened, leaving the hospital room behind and getting lost in a barrage of memories. His nightmares replayed as a highlight reel, like the summary at the end of a poorly written season of a once-loved television show. The right actors, on the same familiar sets, but the characters and their actions were all wrong. Riley keeping secrets, putting her trust, and her heart, in the wrong hands. Mac spiraling, inches away from going dark side. Bozer putting his refound dream before lifelong friendships. His family, crumbling as they forgot how much they needed one another. As they forgot him.

“What kind of messed up dream world were you living in, Dalton?”

“Ah, I don’t know, Matty,” he lied, knowing that he had to tell her something or she wouldn’t let the question go unanswered. “Russell Stover chocolates or somethin’. Don’t matter,” Jack shook his head, pulling himself fully back to the present. Back to the real world where his family was waiting to welcome him home with open arms. “It’s over now. I’m back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Bitter? Who, me?! Never!


End file.
